The following letter was sent to Pennsylvania State Legislators
on September 13, 2010. They all chose not to respond.

On August 24 I visited your office, which was one of 18 state legislator
offices I visited that day, and left a packet of information entitled:
A National Disgrace. I hope you had or will have time to peruse it, and
that after reading it, will agree that the long-time residents of South
Oakland have suffered enough under the leadership of Chancellor Mark
Nordenberg. Upon my return to Pittsburgh, I was faced once again with
the never-ending and excessive drinking of the university students, which
results in the litter and trash problems that plague our community. The
attached letter to Councilman Daniel Lavelle discusses that incident
and the two solutions of our grassroots movement to ending the problems
of litter and trash. Our grassroots movement strongly urges you to support
those two solutions.

If action taken again by legislators on our behalf is once more ignored
by Chancellor Mark Nordenberg, then our grassroots movement will make
the choice to visit the offices of national media organizations.

When I returned from Harrisburg, I was faced with another issue confronting
our community - the upcoming Pitt Homecoming Week fireworks display.
I will expound on this, but this matter reveals the ever-present insensitivity
and lack of caring that the Pitt administration has for our community.
Here is my letter to the editor that appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
on September 8:

Hold the Fireworks

The University of Pittsburgh's homecoming week revelry will be next month.
A fireworks display originating from Mazeroski Field has been a continuing
part of past events. How does Pitt get permission to ignite firebombs
from that field?

The adjacent city-owned tree-filled hillside and nearby homes could easily
catch on fire. Also, there are numerous hospitals in the Oakland neighborhood.
Must we wait for a tragic death to occur before university and city officials
initiate action to end this misguided activity?
__________________________

The experience for my 90+-year-old parents and myself last year was horrifying.
Both of my parents were awakened from a deep sleep by the shattering
boom of exploding firebombs. The home seemed to shake and the sound of
the explosions reverberated through our bodies. If it rattled me, I can
only imagine what my parents, who are of advanced age and have weaker
constitutions, must have felt. I wrote a letter to Councilman Bruce Kraus
expressing concern about the safety and health of the people in our neighborhood,
and sent copies of that letter to Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and Chief
of Staff G. Reynolds Clark. Chancellor Nordenberg and Chief of Staff
Clark chose not to respond.

Only when I wrote a letter to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl about this issue
did Mr. Clark respond. Not surprisingly, there was no mention in his
letter about the health concerns this event has on my parents and others
like them in the community. The attitude of Pitt's top leadership has
once again been exposed: their own interests are deemed far more important
than the health, safety and well-being of the elderly in our community,
as well as others who are negatively impacted by their actions.

We are very grateful that the Pittsburgh City Council is now investigating
this issue.

The Pennsylvania State Legislature is far more powerful than the University
of Pittsburgh. After you read this attachment, we hope that you will
do the right thing, if only because it speaks to general morality and
the well-being of good people. Please give your strongest support to
our two solutions.